French government scales back labor reform bill

PARIS (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday unveiled a revised labor reform bill that makes significant concessions to trade unions, as the government seeks to appease a nascent protest movement against the pro-business measures.

Tens of thousands of students and unions rallied across the country last week against the government's initially far-reaching labor reform plans, which had put almost all aspects of France's strictly codified labor rules up for negotiation.

In the revised version, the government will no longer impose a cap on severance pay for dismissed workers - a measure many companies and economists argued would have helped reduce the uncertainty of going through the French industrial court system.

Instead, the new limits will only be introduced as non-binding guidelines.